The coalition govermnent announced its first budget today — giving tax cuts it said were aimed at lower-to-middle income New Zealanders. 1News spoke to Kiwis around the country to get their reaction to today's announcement.
Emiletha Holland is a solo mum to a two-year-old boy. She told 1News it has been "really difficult" paying for everything on her own.
"Maybe the Government will be a bit lenient and give us a bit more, but yeah I guess not. And that's really disappointing to hear because it's hard. It's hard living day to day."
From the tax calculator, she said she would receive $90 per week, which she said would help with her son's childcare and shopping expenses.
"For other mothers that have more kids, that might be a little bit more difficult because you're trying to feed all these mouths, so in my honest opinion I think, no that's not enough.
1News spoke to Kiwis around the country to get their reaction to today's announcement. (Source: 1News)
"Ninety dollars is not a lot, it's basically just food money, or gas money. If it was $150, I could do something with that, I could budget with that."
Holland held back tears as she told 1News about seeing her friends and her family struggle amid the cost-of-living crisis.
"It's terrible, it's hard to live," she said through tears. "I just want the best for my son, but the Government's not doing anything.
"All I'm seeing is the money being spent for business owners and making more houses, but they are doing nothing.
"We don't get a lot, and we're just trying to give our children the best."
School taking a 'cut' - principal
Auckland's May Road School principal Lynda Stuart said she was looking "very hard" in this year's Budget for an increase to the operations grant, which would allow more money for teacher aides and learning assistants.
"We've essentially taken a cut. We're not at the cost of inflation so a 2.5% increase in our ops grant and a 3% increase to our equity is just not going to cut the mustard.
"It doesn't mean we are moving forward; it means we are moving backwards," she told 1News.
She said it could mean the number of hours for teacher aides could have to drop because of this.
Stuart said she was looking for "significant support in the learning support space".
"We have children who have anxiety issues, trauma, we have children who are diagnosed with particular support needs and then the children who are not diagnosed.
"But actually teachers, principals, and learning assistants are crying out for support in the learning space and I didn't really see that."
The Budget saw $191 million pledged over four years for a cost adjustment of 2% to the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Subsidy for under two-year-olds, ECE Subsidy for two-year-olds and over, 20 Hours ECE, and Equity Funding.
Stuart welcomed the boost to ECE, which she said was in a "dire situation".
"Our ECE services are in a dire situation at the moment, so we welcome that because ECE provides the foundation for children coming into our primary schools.
"ECE are dire at the moment, so it's going to take a significantly greater investment to see what we need."
'Anxious for our Māori whānau'
Rick Haira, 41, and his wife Marama said their potential savings of $80 a fortnight would "not go that far" for their large family of five living in Hawke's Bay.
"So $40 a week … yeah. We might be able to get an extra pack of toilet rolls and maybe a few loaves of bread," they laughed.
"But it's something at the end of the day."
They said over the year those extra dollars would add up to around $2000, which they said would go toward their rates.
"Our weekly shopping is anywhere between $350, and usually over the $400 mark, and that's just general household stuff."
Haira said most of the Budget had gone to "a lot of corporations" and he would have liked to see more for the trades as a small business owner himself.
"The little man trying to make his way, when you want more, you need more to pay the employees. Something in and around that to keep staff and take away the pressures of productivity, training, upskilling ...
"There was nothing in the trades industries or anything to look forward to."
He said they were grateful the free lunches in schools was being kept, as it was important for them that kids have kai in kura.
Speaking generally about the Budget, Haira said the Government would be "hopeful that they've cracked it".
"I'm anxious for our Māori whānau and our indigenous families out there," said Marama.
"Not only is the budget not going to be a lot of support, but our whānau are already impacted enough."
Student reacts to Fees Free changes
The Fees Free scheme from the first year of university has now been changed to the final year of study as a way to "incentivise students to complete their studies".
Charlotte Rong is an engineering student at the University of Auckland. She told 1News the cost of tertiary study is "extremely pressing" for first year students.
Rong said she would feel "extremely intimidated" by the large sum in her first year of study.
"I think it's just so tense for students to think ahead of how they have to pay thousands of money for the first year course fee," she said.
Rong said if somebody wants to drop out of uni it will not matter whether the first year is free or not.
"You feel determined to go to tertiary study. Of course you still pursue whether or not first year's free but [you] definitely will have to be super mentally prepared, because it is a lot of responsibility to pay for that course fee."
Axed public service worker on Budget
Government worker Hayley Whitaker told 1News she lost her job during the recent public service sector cuts, and said the tax cuts announced today "weren't going to be a surprise".
"For us as a family, an extra $40 or $50 a fortnight is not a lot, and my preference would be that actually we have a really strong public service that can serve society rather than individual households getting a dollar amount that you might be lucky to get a few more grocery items [with]," she said.
One of her children has Type 1 diabetes, and she thought the $400 per month glucose monitoring would be funded, but that is now on hold.
She said the money will "hardly go anywhere really".
"The entire cuts across the public sector I think is, I'm not sure that anybody has considered the medium-to-long term effects."
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